Manchester United striker Rasmus Hojlund has insisted that he and his teammates must be “sharp” at set-pieces when they face Arsenal in the third round of the FA Cup this Sunday.
United suffered a 2-0 defeat against Arsenal at the Emirates last month. Both Arsenal goals came about from corner-kick routines, with Jurrien Timber and William Saliba finding the back of the net.
Defending dead-ball deliveries has proven to be a major weakness of United this season and it’s something Ruben Amorim has repeatedly stated needs to be addressed.
Hojlund sat down with club media and singled out set pieces as Arsenal’s biggest threat against the Red Devils.
The Dane said, “It’s a tough first opponent and away as well. But we’re going to go for it and, and try to go for it again this year.”
“It’s a good game and the Emirates is a nice stadium. The pitch is very good. I had my debut there as well. So it’s a special place for me and a good opponent. I’m looking forward to it.”
“It can be [a good thing that we played there not long ago], if we do it right. I think we need to be sharp at set-pieces, they have been very good on that, and they scored twice from that last time around.”
“So yeah, very focused there. Just trying to keep improving and do what the manager’s saying and I think we will be good.”
On working under Amorim, Hojlund remarked, “It’s very nice to have a manager like that, you can see the passion and fight inside of him and he gives a lot of freedom to his players, but it’s a very good balance.”
“It’s still very early days and our results haven’t been good recently but it’s about where we will be and I think if we keep going like this, we are on a rough path, but you have to get over that period and then start seeing a response. It’s important to start winning to give some confidence.”
United are currently the FA Cup holders after beating Manchester City 2-1 at Wembley last year. There was a big scare for the team on their way to the final, as they came close to crashing out in the semi-finals stage vs. Coventry City.
“Obviously the game [Coventry] was not the best but in the end it was part of the story that we write for the win and getting through there was very important.”
“On a very rumbly season, I remember us being very focussed and very ready for that game [FA Cup final]. You could see that from the first moment the whistle blew and it was two special goals from special players. The second half always gets a bit… It was about winning.”
“They were pressing on, so we defended well and got there in the end. My mother and father were celebrating with me and I gave my father my medal to wear that night. We’ll try to win more.”
Arsenal vs. United kicks off at 15:00 GMT.
Featured image Julian Finney via Getty Images
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Derick Kinoti
Derick Kinoti is a football writer at The Peoples Person who has covered Manchester United and the game extensively for many years. He is a keen analyst with expertise in SEO and journalism standards. Derick is convinced Wayne Rooney is the true GOAT and won’t hear otherwise!
